Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I absolutely love making homemade bread when I have the time. I'm not crazy about the messy hands that result from mixing and kneading flour and water together, but I love to watch it rise, I love how it makes the house smell as it's rising, and I LOVE to eat it straight out of the oven. I found this recipe recently and couldn't wait to have time to make it. I made it yesterday and it did not disappoint at all! In fact, I will be making two more loaves tomorrow morning before church so it can rise while we are gone.

What you will need for one loaf-

1 1/2 C milk, heated to about 110 degrees
4 Tbsp butter (3 of them melted)
3 large egg yolks
4 1/2 to 5 C flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 pkg)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

Filling-
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
5 tsp cinnamon

-In a small bowl combine the filling ingredients, reserving 1/4 C. Set the rest aside.

-In a different small bowl, whisk together the warm milk, melted butter, and egg yolks. Then in a large bowl, combine reserved 1/4 C filling mixture, 1 Tbsp sugar, 3 C flour, yeast, and salt.

-With an electric mixer, beat together the dry mixture and the milk mixture. It will be thick. Then stir in by hand as much of the remaining flour as you can. When it is thick enough, turn it out on a floured surface and knead in as much of the remaining flour as you can. The dough should be slightly wet and elastic.

-Form the dough into a ball and coat it in a very small amount of vegetable oil so it doesn't dry out and form a crust while rising. Place it in a plastic bowl and cover loosely with a towel or plastic wrap.

-Place the bowl in a cozy place and leave it for at least two hours. This dough may take a while to rise, so don't beat yourself up if it still has NOT doubled in size in two hours. I actually let mine rise for four hours and it was beautiful!!! It is better to let it over rise than under rise in this step.

-Punch the dough down in the bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes to rest. Then roll it out onto a floured surface into a rectangle appx. 20x8 inches. Give the dough a light spritz of water from a spray bottle. Evenly sprinkle all but 2 Tbsp of the filling mixture onto it. Spread it around and spritz it again with the water. Roll up the dough.

-Generously grease a 9x5 bread pan. The bottom needs to be very well greased and floured because the bread will be gooey on the bottom and will want to stick otherwise. Place the rolled up dough into pan and cover loosely with a towel. Let it rise until at least doubled and it nice and high above the rim of the pan (appx 1 1/2 hours).

-Before sticking it in the over, brush the top of the dough with the reamining 1 Tbsp of butter and sprinkle with the remaining filling. Bake in a 350 degree oven for appx 40 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Take the bread out of the pan as soon as you can safely handle it to keep it from cooling and sticking to the bottom. Enjoy a warm slice smeared with butter!